Text from Hasbrotoyshop.com:IRONHIDE is always looking for a challenge, which is why he volunteered to hunt HAILSTORM solo. The two used to be in some of the same weapons clubs back on CYBERTRON, so IRONHIDE knows exactly how dangerous the DECEPTICON weapons specialist is. He’s looking forward to the chance to test his new weaponry out against a guy with as much firepower as HAILSTORM.

Gear up for an intense robot battle with this IRONHIDE figure! This warrior and his converting cannon drone figure are ready to face down their toughest opponents. Convert him to Topkick car vehicle mode so he can tear down the streets in hot pursuit of any fleeing adversaries! Ages 5 and up.

Ironhide is one of the feature characters in the Transformers movie franchise. As one of the oldest Transformers characters out there, it's appropriate that he has received some good attention on various scales in the Transformers toy lines. One scale the movie character has not yet been seen in however is the Deluxe Class. With the "Hunt for the Decepticons" campaign, Ironhide finally gets his due in a smaller, more affordable version.

Vehicle Mode:
Irohide has retained his GMC Topkick vehicle mode from the first Transformers movie, and having the legacy of a character name most associated with being an older warrior set in his ways, this is quite appropriate. Ironhide shouldn't be super flashy or bright. He just needs to be functional and powerful looking. Considering the actual size of the Topkick vehicle in real life, it is kind of funny to see him next to say, Bumblebee and find him actually to be almost smaller in width, but scale with Transformers vehicles has always been something that's been fudged over the years.

For the most part, this sculpt replicates many of the primary features of the Topkick. They include:

The raised wheel structure (customized for the movie), giving the vehicle a sense of height and power.

The "Road Armor" front and rear bumpers complete with small fog light circles on the front.

The cross hatch design on the central grille in the front of the vehicle.

The horizontal, rectangular shaped sideview mirrors (as opposed to vertical mirrors included in some incarnations of the Topkick).

Two tall smokestacks in the back of the cabin section.

Wheel wells that are raised high above the wheels, adding to the impression of height on the vehicle mode.

With sculpting in figures becoming better and better, one would expect nice details on this figure, and indeed they are there! Among my favorites are the windshield wipers, the lights along the top of the cabin, the cross hatch pattern on the grille (with the GMC logo to boot) and finally my favorite is the "Road Armor" logo sculpted into the front bumper on the underside. It's easy to create details that can be seen when the vehicle is right side up, but to see them elsewhere is fantastic. Sadly, one detail is missing: a sculpted Autobot symbol on the back of the truck bed. While I'm not completely surprised the detail is not sculpted, I am surprised a tampographed or painted detail was not put in its place instead. Rather, the entire section is just blank. Another minor difference involves the smokestacks, which point directly to the back while the real life vehicle has the smokestacks pointing slightly out to the sides at angles.

To provide some added play value to the figure, a "Drone" has been included (based on a Drone that appeared in a movie video game). This rectangular piece is designed so that its two weapon barrels can also be interpreted as eyes. The drone has three legs which can be swung out from the bottom. Two of the legs are in front and one in is in the back. This utilizes the movie aesthetic well, with the legs having a lot of detail and looking a bit insectoid in design. With the legs out, this Drone can attach to the back of the truck bed. I imagine you can interpret this as an onboard weapon or sensor system for Ironhide to use in his hunt for Hailstorm!

Ironhide is cast mostly in black plastic. The windows are translucent blue and the wheels are dark grey. Smaller parts such as his smokestacks and the legs on the Drone are silver plastic. Paint applications are done up in silver and red. The silver is used for most of the detailing on the front of the vehicle including the headlights and the border around the grille. A small Autobot symbol is painted onto the left side of the windshield as well. Red is found on the ends of the Drone's barrels and on the "GMC" logo at the front of the truck. You'll also find red on the back of the vehicle.

While the paint job on the figure is good, I think it could have been a bit better. I already mentioned the Autobot symbol on the back of the truck bed, but there is also a "4x4" logo on the rear wheel wells on the real life vehicle, but that detail is absent here. While I dig the black color of the truck, it would be cool to add a bit more color here and there and these details would have done it. That said, there's no denying this truck is a good representation of the truck from the movie.

Transformation to Robot Mode:

Detach the Drone if attached.

Push the front of the vehicle down.

Swing the two halves that make up the truck cabin and the top of the truck bed forward.

Split the rear section of the vehicle.

Swing the rear wheels in.

Move the L shaped vehicle piece on the sides around so the piece next to it can also be rotated around.

Swing the sections with the rear lights up.

Swing down the robot feet.

Swing the robot arms out to the sides.

Swing out the halves of the vehicle's front section and tuck the wheels into them.

Swing the chest panel forward.

Push the windshield piece back and the robot head will swing up.

Connect the two halves of the vehicles front end to the small tabs sticking out of the chest piece.

On each arm, swing back the flat pieces from the truck bed.

Rotate the cabin pieces on the arms around.

Attach the Drone to the left arm section to form its weapon.

Swing the door panels to the back and connect them together.

Robot Mode:
If there's one thing I'll say for Ironhide's movie design: it's distinctive. His profile differs from anyone else in the cast with his huge lower legs and feet, bull-like head design and arms arched out to the sides and triangular chest shape. This figure incorporates all these high level details and more.

This form is where you get to see a lot of detailing sculpted into this figure, the most impressive being those on the chest an legs. The chest is roughly triangular in shape, but it has a lot of curved portions leading to a horizontal section in the middle of the body. This overlaps on top of the sides of the chest which looks fantastic. The movie aesthetic largely relies on panels folding into the robot body in several spots, and this design echoes that aesthetic. His leg designs are also fantastic, with lots of angled and sharp looking armor pieces with three segmented "toes" in the front and huge heel pieces. All of these details have smaller sculpted details on them including circles, notches, rows of vertical lines and vent lines. I'm also a huge fan of Ironhide's gun details from previous releases. This version duplicates the cannon his right arm really well with its central cyclinder, then a smaller ring on the front with smaller funnel shaped cylinders on it. His other weapon is replaced by the Drone weapon, which looks more like an energy weapon than one based on artillery.

Another very distinctive design is the head sculpt. This version of Ironhide has all the requisite design elements including the backswept "ears", discs on the side of thehead and his angled eyes leading to a mouthplate. While a line for his mouth is sculpted into the head, it's in a closed position, drawing emphasis more to his chin piece. In terms of sculpting overall I'm very happy with this figure.

This mode reveals a metallic light blue color, used on several smaller sections of the arms and the lower legs. Black and dark grey make up the rest. Paint applications are done in gold, silver and metallic blue. My favorite paint applications areo n the head, where the metallic blue and gold are used as accents on the outer edges of the face. His right arm cannon is painted metallic blue, which I'm thankful for since the detail is cast in black plastic and would get lost visually if left unpainted.

Ironhide has nineteen points of articulation in this mode. This includes four points of articulation in each arm and five in each leg. The only bit of annoyance I have is that if you move his arms a particular way, the truck panels on his chest tend to move out of place since nothing is really locking them down to the chest piece. This isn't a huge deal since I doubt most kids battling with this guy would even notice, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

Final Thoughts:
There's a lot to like on this figure, however it's not perfect. I would have liked a stronger deco in vehicle mode and the chest pieces detaching from the central piece annoys me (probably more than it should). Overall, this is a good figure and I recommend it, but it could have been better.